joegratz.net

I’m at the Nouveau Niche panel at the Bandwidth Conference. The moderator is Chris Andersen, and the panelists are Gray Gannaway, Kevin Arnold, Tim Quirk, Ted Cohen, and Rusty Rueff.

Q: How are things changing?

Tim: 48.5% of sales at an offline retail environment are generated by the top 100 artists. That goes down to 28% on P2P. For Rhapsody, it’s 24%. Everybody becomes a music geek when they can explore.

Q: Do you see this as an early adopter pehnomenon, or as a generational shift?

Ted: People are taking their blinders off and exploring their passions further. With digital, we can make things available that wasn’t getting any attention. The taste has always been there, this just takes away the limitations that masked them.

Tim: There are airplay charts (what people are fed) — then there are sales charts (what people are eating) — and then there are usage charts (what people actually listen to the most). The differences in the charts are striking. It’s not just what you can get 10 million people to buy — it’s what you can get people to listen to again and again.

Ted: I have 6,000 CDs in the living room. I rarely reach for them. I use Rhapsody instead.

Rusty: If you’re the band, you’re the most relevant person, not the niche.

Q: How do you see this, being just the niches?

Gray: It’s more than a third of our sales at CD Baby. being able to say “check us out on iTunes” is a big benefit for artists. Rising above the clutter is hard.

Tim: There are ways not to do this. For example, writing a program to play your tracks over and over.

Q: Sure, listenership is increasing. Is this enough to change the economics of being an individual artist?

Ted: Maybe more bands can work part time, maybe some can quit their day jobs, but it’s not about the chosen few anymore. It comes down to recommendation and discovery tools.

Tim: If I was 23, I’d quit my day job. I’m making more from record sales now, doing it in my spare time, than I did doing it 24/7 on Warner Brothers.

Kevin: Sync licensing is becoming a big market, since it’s so much cheaper and easier through small distributors.

Q: Tim, you play music for free because it works better that way. What are the models that revolve around free music, and making money from something else.

Ted: First, there’s ad-supported. Free music with ad-share isn’t so hot.

Rusty: We at SNOCAP got all dressed up for a P2P party that never happened. P2P is stll happening, but it’s not with strangers anymore. It’s happening in the social networks now. That’s what myspace is.

Ted: Some of the things going on on Myspace could get smacked down if they happened elsewhere.

Kevin: Buying the music at the point of discovery is a great benefit.

Ted: I moderated a panel many years ago on which Duncan Sheik said a track from his album is the trailer for his movie. Giving the trailer away is OK. Their worry was that they’d end up giving the whole movie away.

Q: Now what for SNOCAP?

Rusty: The digital registry we created can be used for other things than P2P. We’re interested in the unsigned artists. There’s a new relevance for that marketplace. How do you take user-generated and make it user-enabled? We’ve never had an opportunity to let the fans help. We have a 24/7 connection — how do we let that surge?

Gray: Going to iTunes is going to a music store. Going to Myspace is like going to a used car lot. [I’d say it’s more like a bazaar.]

Kevin: You can end up with your own ecosystem.

Q: How has marketing the live experience changed?

Ted: There are other ways to take the moment with you. It’s easier to go to a club and see an act and have a great time than going to some huge venue. You’re connecting. As good as Radiohead is, it’s a little far.

Tim: That’s the band’s damn job, and most of them are doing it. If you’re at all savvy, you’re collecting postal addresses and emailing when you’re coming to town.

Ted: PassAlong.com figures it all out from your music collection.

Audience questions.

Q: I love LaLa. Is the CD really dying?

Ted: I got quoted saying they were a bit disengenuous. Just say it’s friends trading with friends.

Chris: There’s precedent for this — used books. Even on Amazon. “Out of print” is an obsolete term. The authors aren’t getting revenue, but they’re getting read. Publishers are mad.

Tim: Amoeba is the best place in the world. But it’s partially a generational thing.

Q: I work for a digital distributor. There’s no money coming in from subscriptions, in comparison to downloads. How long do we have to wait to see real money?

Tim: I have two answers. In the near term, having your music in a subscription service has more promotional than monetary value. This ties into the number of downloads. When streaming is on, downloads go up by 100%.